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The Breakfast Buffet: Brayden Burries, Nebraska, UCLA’s defense needs to improve

Who’s hungry for college basketball?

Here’s today’s installment of “The Breakfast Buffet”, a daily column that can be found here every single morning getting you caught up to date on everything that’s happened from the day/night before and everything that’s going to happen in the next 24 hours.

Mangia!

Things To Sample

Brayden Burries is rounding into form
Arizona’s five-star freshman is finally performing like a five-star freshman. After a sluggish start to the year, the 6-5 Burries has strung together several good games in a row and tallied 28 points and seven rebounds in Saturday night’s blowout win over Alabama in Birmingham. He’s averaging 19.8 points and 5.3 rebounds in his last four tilts. A productive Burries drastically changes the ceiling for top-ranked Arizona. 

A dream season is unfolding for Nebraska
The Huskers’ 83-80 triumph on Saturday at Illinois was the best win that this program has had under Fred Hoiberg. It also reiterated that Nebraska’s dominance last week in back-to-back wins over both Creighton and Wisconsin at Pinnacle Bank Arena was no fluke. This isn’t just a feel-good story anymore — the Huskers are really, really good. Nebraska’s 11-0 start is the best in program history.

UCLA’s defense needs to improve
The backbone of any team that’s ever been coached by Mick Cronin has been its ability to take the opponent out of what it wants to do offensively. That hasn’t been the case so far in 2025-26. In five games this season against power conference opponents, the Bruins are allowing an average of 74.8 points. By comparison, UCLA allowed an average of 69.1 points in 25 games last season against power conference opponents. The Bruins’ lack of rim protection is a big part of that equation. UCLA will take a 7-3 record into Wednesday night’s game against Arizona State at Pauley Pavilion.

On The Side

  • UConn’s Malachi Smith has 18 assists and just four turnovers in his last two games. You’ll be hard pressed to find a better backup point guard in college basketball.
  • Ja’Kobi Gillespie is just 16-51 from the field and 4-22 from three-point range during Tennessee’s current three-game losing streak.
  • Georgia looks like an NCAA Tournament team for the second season in a row under Mike White. The Bulldogs improved to 9-1 after Saturday’s win over Cincinnati, with four of those victories coming against power conference opponents.
  • No mid-major head coach had a better week than Hofstra’s Speedy Claxton. The Pride won a buy game at Pitt last Sunday and then upset Syracuse on Saturday in Upstate New York.
  • Rutgers is just 54-55 since losing to Notre Dame in the First Four of the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

Daily Specials

  • Niagara at VCU
  • Incarnate Word at TCU

Leftovers